Parking Services hands out an average of 12,400 parking citations during the school year, but contrary to popular belief, parking services is not “out to get you,” manager Buddy Knox says. In fact, he wants to help University drivers avoid getting a ticket by sharing some advice.
First up: Buy a permit. The cost of four or five citations for parking violations — at $30 a pop — is about the same price as buying a permit for parking year-round, Knox says.
Restricted lot price tags range from $156–732. General parking and night/weekend permits are also available for $60–168.
Next step: Properly display your permit. The most common ticket in permitted lots is for tags not being displayed, Knox says. Although drivers are given one “oops pass” per year — which is good for one courtesy dismissal of a failure to display permit citation — he says too many forget to hang their tags back up while parked, or some fall down when drivers hang up sun shades over a windshield.
To alleviate this common mishap, parking permits will now be in the form of decals for car windows instead of hangtags.
“You can reuse them when changing cars,” Knox says, adding that he expects the number of tickets to decline this academic year because of the new permit style.
But the new decals won’t stop the most common parking offense on campus: not paying for a spot in visitor parking lots, which charge a dollar an hour.
“It’s better to invest a dollar than gamble $30,” he says.